“A bit of history here”: Conductor talks Frozen, Ant-Man movie music

With San Diego Comic-Con shuttered due to the pandemic, the event was moved online this year. During Thursday’s “Music for Animation” panel, orchestrator and conductor Tim Davies talked about his involvement in Frozen, Frozen II, and Ant-Man.

When we did Frozen I, it was just sort of like another day at the office, no one knew what it was, it was just this animated thing with a lot of icicles everywhere. And then it became this massive thing.

So going back for Frozen II was like, we were knew we were doing something special and it was going to be really cool.

So playing that first piece of music and seeing the title come up, and you’re closest to hearing it. You’re the first person as the conductor who gets to mold it a little bit. Ultimately, it’s [composer Chris Beck’s] baby. I do remember when the choir started up and everything, the goosebumps, just thinking ‘wow, I’m in a bit of history here.’

On Ant-Man:

I remember the first time we had the Ant-Man theme, when we recorded that. I mean, who would do a superhero theme with pizzicatos? Chris did it, and it worked.

Pizzicatos is the sound of plucking on a string instrument.

Davies also worked on Ant-Man and the Wasp, Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, Muppets Most Wanted, and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

The panel hosts were Alan Tudyk, a voice in laundry list of Disney movies including Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph, and Keith David, the voice of Goliath on Disney animated series Gargoyles.

The panel is available to watch online. This segment begins around the 27 minute mark.